A rapidly growing number of image capturing devices in the form of cameras, cellular phones, and portable digital assistants (PDAs) has led to a sizable increase in the number of digital pictures being taken and stored by users. However, the large number of available pictures has made it increasingly difficult for users and database service providers to organize and select the most useful pictures for downloading, uploading, displaying, storing, and submitting for further processing to other image processing algorithms. The problem is made more acute due to the costs incurred by the users in either downloading or uploading pictures and the expense borne by the database service providers for maintaining expansive databases. Accordingly, a need exists to improve selection and organization of digital images and thereby reduce the expenses of handing and managing such images.